Maxim Gottschalk
Appearance Maxim is a Medium-height man with a medium-heavy build. His short black hair is always neatly kept, although there is still a rugged handsomeness about him, thanks to his square jaw and almost-permanent stubble. His eyes are a medium shade of blue, nothing terribly fancy. Although his appearance only slightly higher than average, many would consider him attractive through his charisma alone, which not only instils people around him with a false sense of security, it also completely hides his true nature. Personality Maxim is charismatic, as explained above, and also has a general air of confidence. He acts humble around nobles- after all, he is their servant, not the other way around- and generally knows his place in society. As long as he can hunt and often brutally kill apostates, he doesn't care. And let's face it- who are his superiors going to believe- him? or the dead mage that 'threatened 'to kill him? Max is a compulsive liar, and more often than not, gets away with it. His biggest weakness is, like most Templars, his lyrium addiction. When on restricted Lyrium supplies (often as punishment), he is prone to violent outbursts. He regards Mage hunting as an art- not because they are outside the chantry's rule, but because it's fun. To Maxim, mages are simply people he is lawfully allowed to bully. Biography It is often joked that members of the Gottschalk family are born with Lyrium running through their veins. Of course it isn't true, but the family has been in the Lyrium dealing business for so long now that a high tolerance to the stuff might as well be part of the family's genetics. As the second son of the family, Maxim had a lot of freedom while he was growing up. He was usually found on the streets with the other neighbourhood kids, bullying anyone who was younger and smaller than he was (so, almost everyone his age or younger). Sure, he may have been beaten once or twice when his lies didn't work, but all that meant to Max was that next time, he had to make sure they believed him when he said he didn't hit that little girl or run her badly-made doll through the mud. Funnily enough, Maxim killed his first mage at the age of twelve. He'll claim to this very day that it was in self-defense, but in reality, he was just picking on the poor kid because he was a little 'different'. He joined the order when he was only fourteen and quickly rose through the ranks to the point where he was able to hunt apostates alone. He was especially fond of sniffing out sheltered ones- the thrill of the hunt was almost as addictive as the Lyrium potions he devoured by the bottle. As he grew older, his brutality only increased. So much so that his superiors began to punish him by restricting his Lyrium. This made him prone to violent outbursts. The only reason the Order kept him around was because despite everything, he was good at hunting apostates. By the time he had turned 28, the knight-commander of the Nevarran Order decided to organize a transfer to Maxim, deeming that due to the increased number of Apostates and the Strict rule of Knight-Commander Meredith, Kirkwall would be better suited for him. Timeline Relationships Category:Inactive Characters